Green ‘flushed and surprised’ to make his Carnegie bow

Dave Craven

Rookie Max Green has not taken the ordinary road to life in Yorkshire Carnegie’s first team.

The young scrum-half, who made his debut in Sunday’s 40-28 win over Ealing Trailfinders, hails from Bradford, which is standard enough.

However, what is not customary is the fact he has represented Sweden Under-18s along the way, qualifying as his mother is Swedish, and is also currently studying for a sports marketing degree at Leeds Beckett University, so is not even on Carnegie’s full-time rosta as yet.

You would never have guessed Green was such a fledgling novice, however, given the authoritative manner in which the 19-year-old took control amid the physicality of the Championship at the weekend.

His vision saw him craftily supply David Doherty with a try-scoring pass inside five minutes of his bow and the teenager also crossed himself for a debut try before half-time.

Green played almost an hour during the third successive victory that left Carnegie as early Championship leaders with a 100 per cent record.

“It was just a great performance and great to be with the lads out there playing in this standard of rugby,” he said.

“I really enjoyed it out there. I wasn’t expecting the call-up. I got told the weekend before I’d be training with the first team last week and then on the Wednesday I got the call-up.

“I was flushed and surprised.”

On his try, Green – who hopes to retain his place for Saturday night’s home game with London Scottish – added: “It was a great move and we all worked hard towards it.

“That’s the name of our game – pushing and supporting – and luckily I was on the end of it.

“Three wins from three is a great start for us and we’re in a really good place at the moment so we’ll keep pushing forward.”

Green was also called up to the England Under-20s side last week and hopes to make strides in his pursuit of a career as a professional rugby player.

“I’m at university and just going into my second year studying sports marketing at Leeds Beckett,” he said.

“I played my rugby up there last season and really enjoyed that; we won the university title at Twickenham.

“I’m from Thackley in Bradford and played at Woodhouse Grove School before doing a couple of seasons at Otley Zebras and coming through the academy at Carnegie.

“At the moment I am training full-time, but I’ll probably end up going to uni later on in the season and get called in (to the first team) when I get called in so I’ll always be ready.”

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